Welcome to My Zero waste! A blog about how we reduced waste and pollution to our environment since 2004.
Join us as we reduce the amount of rubbish we send to landfill each week.

We are a family of four:

– Two adults (Mr and Mrs Green)
– An eight-going-on-sixteen year old child (Little Miss Green)
– An sixteen-going-on-eight year old cat (Cattus Green)

We live in semi-rural Gloucestershire with an assortment of visiting chickens, sheep and horses.

Edited Dec 09: Our beloved Cattus Green died this year from ‘old age’. Her internal organs started to fail, so we had her put to sleep on 25th September.

Mrs Green

I’m a thirty something woman who loves writing, making messes in the kitchen, reading labels on food packets and getting irate when people take a plastic carrier bag for one loaf of bread in the supermarket.

I love creating meals from nothing, staring into the flames of the fire, listening to music, thinking, dreaming, watching the sunrise, and turning up the music until the windows rattle to dance around the house. I enjoy sweeping the floors and a nice clean bathroom. Hmmmm.

I’m always in six minds about everything and according to Mr Green, even when I’m wrong I’m right. When asked to describe me in three words Mr.Green offered: eccentric, enigmatic and completely unreliable. Ho hum.

Mr Green

Mr Green, drives me insane with his love of stuff. I’m trying to minimalise; while he loves nothing better than scouring through charity shops and coming home with new finds. When I create a space on a shelf he asks me what I am going to fill it with. He has more clothes and shoes than me and enough wood to build an ark.

He has an extraordinarily annoying habit of his ‘one day’ stuff actually coming in useful. He has built a conservatory, put in a shower, and installed radiators from his ‘it might come in useful one day’ hoard.

However, he is incredibly handsome, has a voice to die for, is a good listener, is creative, passionate, dynamic and practical. All in all he’s a bit of a Robinson Crusoe and a bit of a catch; even if I say so myself.

Little Miss Green

Little Miss Green is home educated. She is very creative and never uses any object for its intended use for long. Storage boxes rapidly become elaborate dens, houses or boats, pencils are rabbit food, curtains are the sea, her bed is for swinging from and her mattress is a trampoline.

She loves reading, writing stories and can usually be found creating a work of art somewhere; often on her bedroom wall. One day she is going to write a book and sell it for a million pounds (on the days that she is not being a vet, running her shop or being a farmer’s wife with five children). Her farm is going to be large enough so we can move in and look after her children while she looks after the animals.

She is a natural Buddhist. I can’t garden with her because every creature has to be saved, made a bed for and reunited with its mother, so it takes about 3 hours to dig a square inch; and she has an attachment to none of her possessions. When she is done with them, she gives them away – horrah!

Please do comment on the site or contact us and say Hi – we’d love to hear from you.

Well, talking of waste, where do we start? The most important thing is that we don’t have guilt or fear pangs about the matter [substance ] that is all around us. If you start thinking about girating atoms, they are everywhere, depending on whether they are ‘stuck’ in a polystyrine container, or gently rotting in our compost bucket or growing fresh and new in the garden. We tend to think of ‘rubbish’ as bad and living as ‘good’, but they are both part of the whole process of growth and degeneration. What happens though with a substance that is SO contracted it cannot change – like plastic? Are we sometimes like that too? Let’s all make sure we understand the whole process and not get ‘stuck’ in fear or condemnation.Love you !

Looking at our waste as a spiritual aspect of life is something we’ve not covered on the site. Initially myzerowaste it’s a resource of information and hopefully, inspiration for others to join in and look at their waste in a different light.

I agree we must not get fearful or feel guilty ( or try to make others feel this way), but I do feel that we need to do something. We are already seeing signs of our decadent and wasteful lifestyles in this country and across the world; especially with the devastating effects of our plastic waste on marine life and the way our CO2 emissions are leading to climate change.

There is clearly a fine balance between revering and respecting the environment, accepting what is as perfect and whole in this moment and getting paralysed by fear so that we lose sight of the bigger picture. I agree with what you say up to a point, but I wouldn’t want to use that as an excuse to do nothing.

And if I put my condemnation and judgmental head on, I hope you’ll be here to give me a nudge in the right direction – I’m well aware that although I strive not to, I am very capable of judging and criticising others 😉

We’d love a link to your site – thank you so much! I’ve just taken the quickest of looks at your site and in the words of Arnie ‘ I’ll be back’; I never knew all these things about you. What a rich and wonderful life you lead……..

I’ve written to your personal email address, but this might be helpful information for other people with similar questions.

You are welcome to share articles we have written for the site, and we ask in return that you provide a live link to our home page which is:http://mzw.wpengine.com
Please don’t use rel no follow on website addresses.

Please get in contact again if you need any further help or clarification on things. You can read more about issues such as using information printed on our pages on our Terms of use page.

http://www.greenwala.com/Trash_of_the_Year
Here’s a video of a man I interviewed packing up all his saved trash from one year of trying to create zero waste. His wife and daughters supported him but did not participate in his zero waste experiment so it seems like you are doing more. Still, it’s a great idea and helps raise awareness.

I just found this blog today, and am very fascinated by it. I do just a little recycling, but I have never been wasteful, something I have not been able to pass on to my kids. I guess it’s because they’ve never had to go hungry.

I have sent your link to most of my friends, and have subscribed to your site.

Hi Dorris – welcome to the site; I love your avatar! It sounds like you are living a very conscious lifestyle. Thank you for spreading the word; do feel free to jump in with any comments throughout the site – we love hearing what our readers have to say.

Hi Justine – sorry I did not acknowledge your last comment. Sustainable Dave is great and has done so much to increase awareness of recycling and the rubbish issue in general. Thank you for the link.

@Mrs Green: Hi, Mrs Green, I have only just discovered you,and put a lot in Speak Your Mind. Sorry I shot my mouth off, it was so nice to find a group of like-minded people! I intend to keep having a look at the site from now on, as waste makes me see red.

Hi Ingrid – welcome to the site; it’s great to see you here and we love that you shot your mouth off! you’re most welcome to share your views as it can lead to fabulous discussions. So glad you feel you’ve met a group of like-minded people and I look forward to your further comments around the site. You’ve found us at a great time as we are taking part in a pledge next week to declutter our garage whilst creating the minimum amount of landfill waste possible. It should be interesting 🙂

Just stumbled across your site whilst searching for recycling hints/tips, and it’s the most fun and informative I’ve found 🙂
I now know what I’ll be looking at for the rest of the evening, hehe – I’d better bookmark you, as I have a feeling I’ll be coming back 😉

Your ‘name’ has led my husband and I to have quite a discussion on the use of the word Mrs in type. I think this is the first time Ive ever come across anyone called Mrs in cyberspace! (but then again I dont get around cyber very much).

I read the recent article about your family in the Times & noticed the comments about toothpaste tubes. I not know how “environmentally sound” the following suggestion is, but it will help to totally transform lives. Please consider sending them to Philippine Community Fund (PCF) in Southampton. It is a British based charity that helps very poor families living on a dumpsite in Manila, Philippines by providing education, healthcare & livelihood programmes. They need old toothpaste tubes which are reused to form bags, etc which are sold to help provide income.

Just wondered if there was anyway when you get feedback from the different companies as to the makeup of their packaging if you could compile an archive list and keep it on here somewhere, so we can all look at it as needed.

Hi Maisie, funny you should mention that about packaging … Check MyZeroWaste website on Monday to see the launch of our new sister site, dedicated to consumer product packaging, what it is and how to deal with it environmentally.

Hello Green family! I just ran into your website and couldn’t stop reading it. I totally agree with this: “We see that the time has come to stand up, ‘walk the talk’ and in our own small way do something proactive about climate change and the ecological crisis that encroaches ever closer.”

That’s why around a year ago I started a similar site that a couple of months ago became an NGO, it is called Ideals Matter (www.idealsmatter.com), in a similar way to myzerowaste, our goal is to raise awareness on issues related to the environment, health and society. On a local level we are organizing events and activities to make our goal happen.

At the moment we are looking for bloggers/writters willing to share their articles with us, we have a group of volunteers willing to translate it to Spanish in order to reach those 500 million people in Sout/Central America that need more information regarding these issues.

HI, I guess you are based in the UK? I’m in America, Baton Rouge Louisiana to be exact { think New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina }. . Does it matter that I am in America? I’ve been fighting the “Great American Greed” all my life. My family had that disease when I was growing up and when my mom passed in 1981 she left me with a huge 3 story, 15 room monster house filled with everything. Fast forward to the present. My husband, son and myself havent had a car, truck or motor cycle in 21 years. We ride bicycles every where possible, even grocery shopping. If it’s raining we either ware a rain poncho, catch a bus or stay at home till it stops. Our city has a great recycleing program – if people would use it – so we recycle everything possible. We only put out our trash barrel about every 1 1/2 months and then its usually only half full. We put out the recycling barrel about 1 or 2 times a month and then it’s usually more then full. I have to admitt, I love my country and all that patriotic stuff. I couldnt imagine not being American but the atitude’s need to change A LOT!! Every one has to have their own car. If there are 10 people in the family they need at least 1 car per person then they also each need their own motor cycle, 4 wheeler, motor boat, skiedo, you get my picture. If it runs on gas they need at least 1 per person!! I’m sorrym I’m rambeling so.
Vera Taylor
B.R. La.

@Vera Taylor: Hi Vera, welcome to the site. Yes, we’re in the UK 🙂 We have a readership from all across the globe; many of our loyal readers are from the US plus we have Canada, Australia, lots from Italy etc so you’re more than welcome and we always appreciate comments on things we are writing about from a global perspective – in fact I have someone in the US who wants to opt out of junk mail so if you can help me give her some advice I’d be grateful 😉

It sounds like your lifestyle is very conscious, yet you are balancing that with ‘real life’ which is what we strive to do as well. I think it’s important to continue focusing on what you do and to take the opportunity to sow seeds wherever you go. You never know how many people you inspire or touch simply through living your life the way you do; so keep up the great work! 🙂

@Mrs Green: @Mrs Green: junk mail!!!!!!!!! the bane of the mailmans existence!!!
The only way she can get rid of it is to write the companies a letter = more paper wasted = or she might be able to get threw to them online at their corperate head quartetrs online. Good luck with that though. It’s like spam. you get rid of 1 peice and they send you 20 more. There really is no way to get rid of it all especialy since the post office get tons of it to deliver to every single address in tghe country. Only good thing is that at least it’s recycleable.

I also have a question. Does anyone have a way that REALLY works to get rid of fleas? This year seems worst then ever with the little buggers!! I put corn starch on my cats and dogs and it gets rid of them for a while but it does ware off.
I have = I hang my head in shame but I am that desperate = tried those spray’s and drops that you put on them once a month and the only thingm it did was cause them to break out from the chemicals in it. So if anyone knows of any way to controle or kill them please letr me know.

To flip over for a second: has anyone seen a movie called “The Screw Fly Solution” in the Masters of Horror collection? An absolute horribley terrifingly funny take on pest controle.

@Vera Taylor: Thanks for the junk mail advice. It seems a lot easier to opt out over here from what you have said.

regarding fleas, yes I have used a method that totally works. Like most ‘natural’ products it takes time. The sprays are quick and effective (although toxic as you discovered). Natural methods require patience, discipline and consistency. I have used neem; it took about a month of cleaning the floor EVERY MORNING and washing the cat with essential oils once or twice a week (some vets will tell you that essential oils are toxic, which of course they are used in the wrong quantities; so do be careful). I mixed the neem oil with essential oils of cedarwood, eucalyptus and lemon I think for the house. You should also vacuum every day, especially pet bedding. I washed the cat with a drop of cedarwood in a small bowl of blood temperature water – she quite liked it 🙂

I’ll give that a try. I’m up for trying anything at this point. Do you get a lot of rain in your country? I guess it depends on what part you are in. We are in the southern part of Louisiana close to the Attachafalia swamp which is a huge natural swampland filled with alligatores, turtles, birds, snakes. It’s a National park really beautifull. There’s a long run of interstate 10 that runs threw it and you can get a look at it from your car or bus as you go threw. Any way the point I started making is that we live in the tropics and it is constantly hot and humid. We get about a month of really cold weather. 1 to 5 nights will actually get to below freezing but thats the exstent of it. Other wise its in the 80’s on up with the humidity up in the 90’s on up. Very hot and humid.

@Vera Taylor: We always complain we get a lot of rain is the UK, but then if it doesn’t rain for a week we start complaining about drought! Last winter it dropped to 15 below for a while so while that will slow fleas down, for people with wall to wall carpets and heating, the fleas move indoors and start breeding in the floor … I think a preventative attitude is best.

Hello! We are italian. We love so much your family because we love your work of recycling. We also like your cat! 😀 We know about you thanks to our prof of English. She spoke about your family and your work of reuse, reduce and reclycle. We made many progets to reclycle our waste for esemple with CD, FLOPPLY, CORKS AND TETRA PAK. We have also waced a video of your family. Congratulations!

@class 3c: Hello Class 3c! Welcome to the site and thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I’m so happy that your professor of English has been talking about our work to you and how you have lots of projects in place at school for recycling. Keep up the great work for the environment and let me know what you plan next 🙂

Plus I’ve been toteing water back and forth to my little garden. tomarrow i give up and pull out the hose. everything is so dry even the tree’s are suffering. the only reason the greens are doing so good is because we lug out 2-3 five gallon buckets of water to keep it going. UI’ve been growing this spinache called Malabar red stem spinache. it grows like a weed and tastes great. . ive only got 1 pot of it going so far because i cant stop trimming it and i’ve been giving away cuttings that i’ve gotten rooted. I cant help it. There are so many poor hungry people in my area that it would be a sin to keep it to myself. if they have a place to groe it – even in a pot – i give it away. I guess you can tell, I’m a little Socialistic in my thinking.

@Vera Taylor: Hello Vera, good to hear from you. It sounds like your garden is hard work at the moment with water shortages; but you are managing and still giving food away, which is a wonderful act. Keep up the great work 🙂

I could just MURDER peopel at times!!!!!!!!!!!!!I have 10 cats in our housee and NOW 7 cats outside, only 2 of which could even begin to take care of themselves. these poor things are scared, and hungry. And they both have kittens. I have one of the babies inside because I hadnt realised the mother was around and by the time she showed up 2 days later the kitten wouldnt go back to her. he kept climbing back up to me. it was already to late so to return him. Then my husband found 2 more in the weeds in behind our house that we took in but tghe mother showed up an hour later and took them back with her and I couldnt leave them out there to starve to death so we have been feeding them and the other cat thet showed up with 4 kittens.

@ Vera – I TOTALLY agree! I used to work for a cat rescue (it unfortunately closed down due to lack of volunteers) and the “reasons” people would give for “needing” to get rid of their cats really could have turned me murderous if I ever got to meet them! 🙁

It’s nice to know that the cats obviously can tell a cat-lover when they see one though – it takes a lot for cats to move their kittens to someone they know they can trust. Best of luck in finding them good homes! *hugs*

Yes they all have excelent homes. 3 with our son and his fiance ( my son and his 3 still live at home with us ) and a couple of them prefer to make their “home” in our living room or one of the kitchen it all depends on which room they prefer at the time. LOL!!! /

Hi, how have you been doing. I know I havent been around for a while but my lupus has been flaring up which has my diabeates numbers being high. BUT my Dr. is a great one. She is from Canada and went to LSU ( Louisiana StateUniversity ) and practuces out of one of their area clinics in the specialty clinic so I’m lucky to have her

I’ve just come across your blog whilst trying to educate myself even further about ‘zero-waste’. I live in Brighton, UK, and our family are just starting our transition! It’s both frustrating and rewarding in equal measures, but reassuring to know there are other families in the UK actually living this!!! Most inspiring 😉

Hello! Nice to find you. Stumbled across you when looking for zero waste toilet rolls of all things! I’m a newbie blogger (only started this year) but am very keen to spread the word. Always on the look out for fellow Brit bloggers, I live in Scotland. Looking forward to reading your posts!